


From the Embers - A History of the Targaryen Restoration

by Meagan2017



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Aunt/Nephew Incest, Book Plots mixed in, Book!Euron, Cersei Lannister is a Mad Queen, Cousin Incest, Daenerys Targaryen Is Not a Mad Queen, Deviates From Canon, Gen, Ignores Season 7, Ignores whole of season 8, Jon Snow Knows Something, Jon Snow is Not Called Aegon, Jon Snow is a Targaryen, Jon and Dany are good parents, Jon and Dany are good rulers, Jon and Dany's Reign, King Jon Snow, Massive fix-it, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pro-Stark, Pro-Targaryen, Queen Daenerys Targaryen, R Plus L Equals J, References to Canon, Sansa does not marry Ramsey, Targaryen Restoration, The Long Night, Written in Fire & Blood Style, fuck D&D
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-07-04
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:40:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22502653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meagan2017/pseuds/Meagan2017
Summary: A depiction of the events surrounding and succeeding the Targaryen Restoration, beginning in the year 306 AC, detailing the reign of Queen Daenerys and King Jaehaerys Targaryen, the First and Third of their Names, and that of their children and grandchildren.By Archmaester Daena of the Citadel of Oldtown, in the year 406 AC.
Relationships: Arya Stark/Gendry Waters, Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen, multiple other pairings
Comments: 18
Kudos: 88





	1. The End of the Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! This has been bouncing around in my head for AGES, so I finally decided to write it out. Please note, this is written in the style of George R.R Martin's 'Fire & Blood', as a history book written after the events depicted within the ASOIAF universe. I wanted to experiment with this format, and I needed it as therapy for the horrible ending that was given to us. This is my very first fanfic, so constructive criticism would be very much welcome as I am also doing this to improve my own writing. I hope you enjoy!

House Targaryen, the last remnants of the civilisation of Old Valyria, had ruled over Westeros for three centuries. From Aegon I, known as the Conqueror, to Aerys II, referred to the Mad King, seventeen Targaryen kings sat the great Iron Throne. They ruled over times of prosperity and of strife, of war and of peace, of winter and of summer, as kings both great and terrible.

This, however, came to an end in the year 283 AC, with the uprising of five of the seven great houses, lead by Robert of House Baratheon, himself of partial Targaryen blood. Known as Robert's Rebellion, (although this is considered to be a misleading moniker, as there were a great many others who played a significant role in the rebellion), the year-long war resulted in the deaths of King Aerys and his heir Prince Rhaegar, as well as those of the prince's wife, Princess Elia Martell, and their children, Princess Rhaenys and Prince Aegon.

House Targaryen was not entirely wiped out, however. Queen Rhaella, sister-wife to King Aerys, was able to escape to the Targaryen’s ancestral seat of Dragonstone with her son, Prince Viserys. Whilst hid in the gloomy, cavernous walls of Dragonstone, Queen Rhaella gave birth to her first living daughter, Daenerys, sadly losing her own life in the process. Prince Viserys and his newborn sister were forced to flee Westeros with their loyal but aged servant, Ser Willum Darry, and spent the next decade-and-a-half running from the hired knives of Robert Baratheon, the Usurper.

Unbeknownst to them, and some argue the cause of the war that brought their family to near extinction, Prince Rhaegar had taken a second wife in Lady Lyanna Stark. The exact details of their doomed love affair remain lost to us, and what is known comes from songs and legends and cannot be relied upon. Scholars have theorised that the Dragon Prince and the She-Wolf first met at the Great Tourney of Harrenhal in 281 AC. Wild and fearless, Lady Lyanna was thought to be the true identity of the Knight of the Laughing Tree, the masked competitor that unhorsed three knights in the jousting. Perhaps this is where their tryst began, or perhaps it was Princess Elia that was enamoured with the brave She-Wolf, as some accounts claim, but not long after, Lady Lyanna vanished from the Riverlands. Her brother, Brandon Stark, was led to believe that she had been abducted and raped by Prince Rhaegar, a belief that was held by her betrothed, Robert Baratheon. In truth, they were wed, some theorise in Dorne, others on the Isle of Faces, in the presence of three Knights of the Kingsgaurd, and Princess Elia herself. What became of Prince Rhaegar and his first wife is well-known, but it was not until nearly twenty years after their deaths that the true tale of Lyanna Stark was known. She had been sequestered away in a ruined tower in Dorne, ironically called the Tower of Joy, wherein she died of the birthing fever in the presence of her older brother, Eddard "Ned" Stark. The babe she had borne was the true-born son of Prince Rhaegar Targaryen and was given the name Jaehaerys Targaryen, most likely by the Princess Lyanna herself. Some less reputable sources claim that the babe had actually been named Aegon, which can safely be dismissed, as Rhaegar already had a son with that name and it is unlikely that news of the deaths of the prince's older children would have reached the Tower of Joy if indeed Princess Lyanna wished to honour her husband and sister-wife.  
  
What was said betwixt Princess Lyanna and Lord Eddard remains - and will continue to remain - unknown, but most historians agree that the princess's dying words were a desperate plea for her brother to protect her infant son from all those who would harm him, for surely both knew that if his true identity were to become known, his life would be in grave peril. (Later embellishments by singers and mummers, such as that Princess Lyanna made Lord Eddard swear to love the infant as his own child, or even to claim the throne in her son's name, have been dismissed by modern scholars as little more than dramatic fables).

Whatever Lord Eddard Stark said to his dying sister, it must not be gainsaid that he kept her son safe from the blades of the Usurper. Claiming that the babe was his bastard (an unbelievable tale, as Ned Stark's honour was considered common knowledge, and he had already married Catelyn Tully and gotten a son from her), Lord Stark named the babe for the man who has fostered him (and Robert Baratheon) throughout their youth, Jon Arryn, the Lord of the Eyrie and Defender of the Vale. Lord Eddard took the infant prince and his sister's bones back to Winterfell, along with his Southron wife and heir, a red-haired, blue-eyed boy by the name of Robb Stark. It is known that the two boys, so close in age, became inseparable, and after Robb Stark's tragic death, it is said that Jaehaerys mourned him deeply, and continued to do so for the rest of his days.

Little is known about the early life of Jaehaerys Targaryen, or Jon Snow, as he was referred to. As the illegitimate son of the Lord of the North, and with five true-born 'siblings', he went largely unnoticed and unacknowledged by observers. (Perhaps this was intentional on the part of Lord Eddard, but scholars remain divided on the Quiet Wolf's motivations). The fragments of his life that are available to us paint a somewhat sad, and even ugly, picture of the future king's boyhood. 

Lord Eddard's lady wife was a follower of the Faith of the Seven, whose stance on bastards and similarly low-born individuals is, unfortunately, rather egregious. It can safely, but sadly, be said that Lady Stark shared a similar view, and treated whom she thought was her husband's bastard son accordingly. She brought many Southron servants with her to Winterfell, and it can only be assumed that they treated the hidden prince as their lady did. He would have had fewer privileges than his supposed siblings, and it is understood that the second eldest of the Stark children, the lady Sansa, followed in her mother's footsteps when it came to her "bastard half-brother", and the cruelty of children is well-known.

It is thought that the prince's life was not entirely horrid, however. As previously said, he and Robb Stark were are close as brothers could be, and he doted on Arya Stark, the second-born Stark daughter. On the way back from the execution of a deserter of the Night's Watch in 298 AC, the Stark party discovered a dead direwolf in the snow. Along with the rest of the Stark brood, Jon Snow was permitted to claim one of her six pups, all of whom had survived their mother. (The appearance of a direwolf, living or dead, was cause for concern as no direwolf had been found south of the wall in more than two hundred years, but was considered by many to be an omen of what was to come).

Not long after the discovery of the pups, Lord Stark was asked to be the Hand of the King to Robert Baratheon, the man who had murdered his nephew's father and usurped the boy's throne. Lord Stark accepted this position somewhat reluctantly, it is said (and which proved, sadly, to be his downfall). With the Lord of the North to move South indefinitely, Lady Stark refused to suffer her husband's bastard any longer; she ordered Lord Stark to send the boy to the Night's Watch, to which Lord Eddard acquiesced. This was a decision that would shape the course of history, as it was at the Night's Watch that Jon Snow was elected the 998th Lord Commander, after the traitorous death of the previous Lord Commander, Jeor Mormont. he would go on to make common cause with the wildlings against an ancient, terrifying enemy that would threaten the entirety of Westeros. It is also where, the legends say, he was murdered by his own Sworn Brothers, before resurrected three days later by a red priestess of R'hllor. While a such a mutiny at the Wall did occur (ultimately ending in disaster for the plotters), the notion that Jon Snow was slain and then raised from the dead is ludicrous, to say the least, and has been rejected by scholars as little more than superstition on the part of the Black Brothers and the Free Folk.

However, in the event that such a fable was true, it would explain the Lord Commander's subsequent desertion from his post at the Wall. The Brothers of the Night's Watch serve for life and the fact that not only was Jon Snow permitted to abandon his post, but elected at King in the North thereafter, remains puzzling. His last act as Lord Commander was to execute the few surviving conspirators by way of hanging; curiously, later testimonies from the few surviving Black Brothers claim that the traitors soiled their breeches at the sight of the commander they had betrayed.

With justice served, it is said that Jon Snow threw off his black cloak and declared that his watch had ended, before heading south to join with his sister, Sansa Stark, in reclaiming their ancestral home of Winterfell from the Boltons. It is not our purpose here to recount the details of the Stark's campaign to retake the North, nor the great, bloody Battle for Winterfell, which some referred to as the Battle of the Bastards. Suffice it to say the Starks were successful in defeating the Boltons, but at the grievous cost of the life of Rickon Stark; he was youngest of the Stark children, who had been slain during the battle by Ramsey Snow, the Bastard of the Dreadfort. 

The death of the (presumed) last Stark heir prompted the Northern Lords to announce Jon Snow as their King, being unaware of his Targaryen heritage. He would reign for a little over a year as King in the North before his identity as Jaehaerys Targaryen was revealed, and his claim for the Iron Throne of Westeros was amalgamated with that of Queen Daenerys'. 

Turning now to the childhood of Queen Daenerys, accounts suggest that after the downfall of their family, the last two (known) Targaryens fled to Essos, away from the wrath of the Usurper. The specific location of their flight remains ambiguous, as Queen Daenerys would later maintain that they first fled to Braavos, where they lived in a house with a garden full of lemon trees, but the climate of Braavos is known to be too cold and damp to sustain the growth of citrus trees. It is thought that the then-infant princess was misled as to the true location of this mysterious manse, perhaps an attempt to protect those who sheltered her and the prince Viserys. After the death of Ser Willum Darry in 289 or 290 AC from a wasting sickness (though some have postulated far more sinister theories as to the former master-at-arms' death), the prince and princess were forced from their safe haven. They travelled across the western coast of Essos, from Myr to Tyrosh to Lys to Volantis and even as far as Qohor in order to escape the Usurper's hired knives. At first, they were offered shelter in the homes of the wealthy merchant princes, archons and magisters that ruled the Free Cities, but it was not long until these receptions turned cold and the two princelings were turned out onto the streets. Prince Viserys (styling himself as King Viserys III) was unable to gain any support of significance in his quest to retake Westeros, and with each closed door and rejected plea, the ‘Beggar King’, as he became known, grew more and more obsessed with the idea of reclaiming of what he considered to be his rightful seat, and, unfortunately, more unstable.

In late 297 AC, the prince and princess were welcomed into the manse of Illyrio Mopatis, an extremely wealthy Pentoshi merchant, who, half a year later, helped to broker the marriage between Princess Daenerys and a Dothraki _khal_ by the name of Drogo. It was at her wedding to Khal Drogo that Princess Daenerys received a most precious gift from her Pentoshi benefactor: three dragons eggs, supposedly from Asshai, and turned to stone by the ages. The wedding was considered a splendid affair, with guests from up and down the Sunset Sea in attendance.

The match between _khal_ and Targaryen princess was considered a controversial one, and scholars still debate the Pentoshi's reasoning behind this decision, as well as Prince Viserys'. No doubt he wished to use the _khal_ 's forty thousand-strong _khalasar_ to retake the Seven Kingdoms, but the Dothraki have little interest or experience in siegecraft, which would be needed to in order to successfully conquer the continent, nor would the lords of Westeros take too kindly to a monarch who used “half-naked savages”, as one lord stated, to rape, pillage and burn their fields and villages.

Regardless of the reasoning behind this decision, it must be said that Princess Daenerys made the best of this unconventional marriage alliance, earning the affection of her horse-lord husband, as well as the friendship of an exiled knight, Jorah Mormont. Prince Viserys, however, did not adapt to his circumstances near so well as his sister. Arrogant and unbalanced even as a boy, years of homelessness and fruitless begging only made him more unbalanced, with a dangerously prickly pride. He proved himself unable (or perhaps unwilling) to court his sister’s people. The Dothraki do not believe in the notion of buying and selling, but rather receive gifts and then return the favour in kind. Khal Drogo considered Princess Daenerys as a gift, and he would reciprocate this...in his own time. Prince Viserys did not want to wait, however; he believed that he had been cheated, and he meant to get the crown he was promised. It should not surprise us that threatening Princess Daenerys (and her unborn child) in front of her husband and the whole _khalasar_ was to be the Beggar King's undoing. It is said that the _khal_ poured molten gold over his head, giving him the "golden crown" Prince Viserys had so desired (and had been promised). He was twenty-two years old.

His murderer did not long outlive him. Some weeks later, the _khal_ took a wound to the breast whilst warring with a rival _khalasar_ for a Lhazarene village, which quickly began to fester. What happened next has been shrouded in legend and clouded by misinformation, but it can be surmised that the _khal_ perished of blood poisoning. Many stories claim a healer, godswife, or even a _maegi_ had sworn to heal Khal Drogo, only to fail (or poison him further), but the authenticity of these claims cannot be determined. It is also said that it was the death of her husband (and the impending threats that it posed) that caused Princess Daenerys to go into labour. Despite having felt the babe move just moments before, the still-born child that came forth was said to be a monstrosity: blind, with wings like a bat and a stubbed tail.

Whilst the princess was recovering from childbirth, Drogo's _khalasar_ fractured, leaving only a handful behind to send their _khal_ into the night lands. It was these people, the remains of the once largest _khalasar_ to ride the Dothraki sea, that bore witness to the miracle that followed.

For reasons unknown to all but herself, Princess Daenerys decided to place the eggs she had been gifted upon her husband's funeral pyre, before walking into the flames herself. Targaryens are not immune to fire (despite what some sources claim), yet the princess emerged from the dying embers unharmed. And, in the cradle of her arms, were three living dragon hatchlings.

The methods of dragon hatching have long been debated by Targaryens and scholars alike. In centuries past, eggs were placed in the cradles of Targaryen babes, which appeared to prompt the dragon within to emerge. For unknown reasons, this stopped being effective in the years following the Dance of the Dragons, the civil war that drove the dragons to the brink of extinction.

The dragons' names and features have become as well-known as that of the Princess'; she named them for those she had lost, to honour and remember them. The black-and-red beast that would later be the princess' mount was Drogon, for her first husband. The second of the hatchlings, a green-and-bronze dragon that would later carry a king into battle, was Rhaegal, for her brother Rhaegar. The last hatchling, named Viserion (for prince Viserys), was a creature of cream-and-gold.

After the hatching of her dragons, the first of such a miracle in one-hundred-and-fifty years, the Mother of Dragons (as the princess was now referred to) set off across Essos with the dregs of her husband's _khalasar,_ supposedly following a red comet that streaked across the sky. She travelled across the Red Waste, taking refuge in the abandoned and desolate cities that dot that inhospitable landscape. From there, the princess travelled to Qarth, and then onto the slave cities of Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen, gaining renown wherever she went. Her dragons grew larger and stronger by the day, in particular, the black-and-scarlet Drogon, who was said to be Balerion the Black Dread Reborn. However, the princess would note that it was her dragons that drew the attention of the masses, not her, and she began to grow concerned when this curiosity turned to covetousness.

The events surrounding Daenerys Targaryen's time as conqueror and then queen in Slaver's Bay has been exceedingly well-documented (amongst these accounts, Archmaester Marlcaster's _The Breaking of Chains: The Collapse of the South-Eastern Slave Trade_ remains the most detailed) and need not be recounted here. It does bear repeating - and emphasising - that The Mother of Dragons was instrumental in toppling the institution of slaveholding in central Essos. While its official collapse would not come about until well into her reign as Queen of Westeros, it cannot be disputed that it was her influence that began its downfall

It was not the cities of south-eastern Essos that the queen wished to rule, however. She was destined for Westeros, for her family’s throne, she claimed, and now she had the means to take it. Queen Daenerys had amassed a rather large following whilst in Essos. She had earned the undying loyalties of eight-thousand Unsullied soldiers in Astapor by granting them their freedom, regardless of whether they chose to follow her or not. Thousands shadowed her from Astapor, and more came from Yunkai. Only a third were men of fighting age (excluding the Unsullied), but they were fiercely devoted to the queen who had liberated them. Even the Dothraki would play a part in the queen’s takeover of the Seven Kingdoms. Queen Daenerys earned their respect and dedication, it is said, when they witnessed her climbing upon Drogon in the middle of Vaes Dothrak; only the greatest _khal_ could ever hope to tame such a creature, they claimed, and she had mounted that beast like a man mounts a horse. While not all, nor even half of the Dothraki pledged to ride with their new _khaleesi_ (as some erroneously assert), the numbers that the queen had gained during her second visit to Vaes Dothrak were enough to halt the riots in Meereen, and, upon hearing of her victories, more _khals_ made their way to Meereen to behold the Dragon Queen. (Estimates as to the exact number of Dothraki that joined Daenerys Targaryen range from between thirty- to fifty-thousand).

The queen also had the support of two Westerosi knights: Jorah Mormont, of Bear Island, who had been loyal to the queen the longest of all her followers, and the more renowned Ser Barristan Selmy, the former Kingsgaurd to her father, King Aerys II, and Robert Baratheon after him. After the death of the Usurper, during the first court session of King Joffrey, Ser Barristan was summoned before the Iron Throne and discharged from his duties as a Sworn Brother. This was utterly unprecedented, as knights of the Kingsgaurd serve unto their deaths. (It is said that the Usurper’s heir, Joffrey Baratheon, stated before the court that the distinguished knight was “too old” to defend the Royal family.) Unsurprisingly, Ser Barristan took this as a slight (whether or not it was intended as such is unknown) and made his way eastward to beg forgiveness of the last Targaryen and pledge himself to her cause.

Queen Daenerys would begin her conquest of Westeros in the last days of 303 AC, landing on the shores of Dragonstone, her family’s ancestral seat. Upon taking her seat, she found a realm beset by war, treachery and tragedy.

The death of King Robert and the subsequent execution of Lord Eddard Stark (on the orders of the boy-king, Joffrey Baratheon) in 298 AC had plunged the Seven Kingdoms into chaos. Robb Stark, called the Young Wolf by his fellow Northmen, rose in rebellion against the Crown, declaring Northern independence; the Riverlands soon joined him, at the behest of his dying grandsire, Lord Hoster Tully.

On the Iron Isles, the Lord Reaper of Pyke saw an opportunity in the turmoil of the mainland and set about declaring their own independence from Crown. With the assistance of his youngest son, Theon Greyjoy (who had been a ward of House Stark for near on a decade), the Iron captured several Northern seats of great import, including the Young Wolf’s own Winterfell.

In King’s Landing, it was House Lannister who now ruled. Queen Cersei Lannister, the widow of Robert Baratheon and mother of the royal children, acted as regent for her son but proved unable to reign in the impulsive boy-king. King Joffrey was said to be sadistic, tormenting Lord Eddard’s imprisoned daughter, Sansa Stark, on the account of her “traitor’s blood”. It is widely claimed that he forced her to look upon her father’s severed head, had her beaten on multiple occasions, and swore to deliver her brother’s head. His impetuousness and incompetence were only quelled by his grandfather, Lord Tywin’s and his uncle, Lord Tyrion’s tenures as Hand.

Across Blackwater Bay and in Storm’s End, respectively, the boy-king’s paternal uncles, Stannis and Renly Baratheon, also claimed the Iron Throne…on the grounds that all of Robert Baratheon’s children by Cersei Lannister were bastards sired by the queen’s own brother, Ser Jaime Lannister, a Sworn Brother of the Kingsgaurd. (The authenticity of these claims has been the source of rigorous academic and political debate. It was widely believed by the Lannister’s enemies and widely claimed. Many at court suspected, but held their tongues. Modern scholarship has provided a somewhat more plausible explanation for these claims. While the three children of Queen Cersei Lannister were most likely _not_ the king’s, it is theorised that she had other lovers that shared her golden hair and green eyes).

This war of five kings lasted almost three years, although the name somewhat of a misnomer, as the Lord Renly was murdered by unknown parties early in the conflict, before the rise of Balon Greyjoy, causing the Tyrells to change their allegiance to King Joffrey. After a devastating defeat on Blackwater Bay, Lord Stannis had retreated first to Dragonstone before answering a summons from the Wall, moving his family and army to aid the Night’s Watch in dealing with the Wilding invasion.

Robb Stark, his mother, and his wife were murdered by House Frey – by the command of Tywin Lannister – at his uncle’s wedding (a tremendous breach of guest right, for which the Frey’s would later pay dearly). King Joffrey was poisoned at his own wedding to Margaery Tyrell by the bride’s grandmother, Olenna Tyrell; originally, the poisoner was suspected to be Tyrion Lannister, who was charged for the crime of regicide, but this has since been disproven.

Shortly after the death of King Joffrey, Balon Greyjoy fell to his death crossing a wooden bridge during a storm (murder by his successor was and still is strongly suspected). The Iron Born held a Kingsmoot to choose who would lead them thereafter. Several claimants came forward, including Balon’s own daughter, the fearless Yara Greyjoy, but the Seastone Chair went to Balon’s younger brother, Euron, called the Crow’s Eye. A notorious pirate, Euron was considered a madman, even by his own subjects. He ransacked the Shield Islands of the Reach, even going as far to sack Oldtown. It is said that whilst doing so, he had his own younger brother, Aeron, bound to the prow of his ship. A reputed sorcerer, his ship _The Silence_ was said to be crewed entirely by mutes, and he claimed that he had taken that ship to the cursed remains of Valyria. He was also presumed to have an enchanted horn known as Dragonbinder, and he intended to use it to enslave Queen Daenerys’ dragons.

After the death of King Joffrey, the crown passed to Tommen Baratheon, the youngest son of Robert Baratheon. King Tommen had taken Margaery Tyrell to wife, who was thrice-married and twice-widowed (first to Renly Baratheon, when he too claimed the Iron Throne, and Joffrey Baratheon before his murder). King Tommen was only thirteen when he came to the throne, so the regency fell to his mother, Queen Cersei. He was described as being the opposite of his brother: a sweet but tractable boy, and as such, easily manipulated by those older than him. Queen Cersei took advantage of his compliant nature (and the death of her father, who had been Hand of the King), dismissing many Small Council members and replacing them with men loyal to her (and who would not question her decisions). This would prove to be disastrous, as Queen Cersei’s pronouncements would plunge the realm into further strife. She had the current High Septon assassinated, believing him to be “her brother’s creature”, which caused the ascension of a much more radical sect of the Faith. She refused to honour all of the crown’s debts, which resulted in economic pandemonium across the kingdoms. To quell some of this chaos, she permitted the restoration of the Faith Militant, the military arm of the Faith of the Seven, in return for the new High Septon forgiving the Crown’s debt owed to them. This proved to be the greatest of Queen Cersei’s errors, culminating in her arrest for various accounts of high treason. Unsurprisingly, the lion queen was disinclined to continue with the Faith’s “sham” of a trial and ordered the city’s pyromancers to destroy the Great Sept of Baelor on the day of her trial…along with all inside it. The new High Septon (dubbed the ‘High Sparrow’), more than half of the Warrior’s Sons and the Poor Fellows, Kevan Lannister (the queen’s uncle), Queen Margaery and her youngest brother, Ser Loras Tyrell of the Kingsgaurd…as well as thousands of civilians all went up in flames. One particular victim was not even present, yet counted as a casualty all the same. King Tommen, who had tried so desperately to win the support of his subjects and to repair the realm, was found dead in the courtyard of Maegor’s Holdfast. The state of his remains indicated that he had fallen to his death onto the cobblestones below, but the majority suspect that he had taken his own life. He was just fifteen years old.

At the Wall, Stannis Baratheon continued to defy the Lannisters. In order to weaken the Crown’s foothold on the North, he sought to retake Winterfell from the Boltons, who had been rewarded for their part in the slaughter of Robb Stark and his army. While he won some early battles against Freys (using the deathly cold blizzards to his advantage), he was ultimately slain in battle outside of Winterfell. The fates of his wife and daughter remain ambiguous. Some stories tell that Lord Stannis burned his only child alive at the behest of a red priestess of R’hllor, in order to clear the snows and ensure his victory, and that his wife committed suicide as a result. Others state (somewhat more plausibly) that the ladies Selyse and Shireen were captured by the Boltons after the battle and executed, though no records of such an event have been found (if it actually occurred at all). More contradictory accounts emerged from the Wall, asserting that the ladies Baratheon remained with the Night’s Watch whilst Lord Stannis was warring with the Boltons. Neither the Lady Selyse nor Lady Shireen appear again in the annals of history after the death of Stannis Baratheon, and it has been assumed that they met their end either shortly before or after his.

It was to all of this that Queen Daenerys returned. Dragonstone fell within the day, it is said. Stannis Baratheon had left a small garrison to defend the ancient stronghold, but his death in the North had torn the heart out of his remaining loyal men (few that they were). The queen took her ancestral seat bloodlessly, the garrison throwing down their weapons at the sight of the three dragons circling the stronghold. Rather than imprisoning the men that had sworn to follow her enemy, the queen praised them for their courage and loyalty, swearing them safe passage from the island, if they wished it. None took this offer, preferring to remain as the queen’s guests then risk the war-stricken continent. They were not imprisoned but rather asked to surrender their weapons and to remain within their designated chambers. This they did, and within two moon-turns, the queen had earned their loyalty, and they pledged to aid her in reclaiming her throne.

Once the citadel was secure, Queen Daenerys set about winning the loyalty of the smallfolk that lived in the numerous fishing villages that dotted the island. She made frequent excursions to these townships, bringing much-needed food, medicine and other supplies. She sat children on her knees and told them stories of the cities of the far east, of monsters and dragons and magic. She began holding courts, first in the villages and then in the castle itself, and encouraged those who attended to speak freely. In addition, she held numerous women’s courts, as Queen Alysanne of old did, and it was not long before the queen won the hearts and devotion of the people she sought to rule over.

This peace was not long in lasting. Rumours of the fall of Dragonstone did not spread quickly, largely due to the efforts of the queen and her council, but it was inevitable that she would be discovered. Once the reports reached King’s Landing, the response from the Iron Throne was swift and brutal, for Queen Cersei had taken her fallen sons’ crowns, and styled herself as Queen of Westeros.

The true war for Westeros had begun.


	2. The Return of the Dragon

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A description of the early days of Queen Daenerys's Conquest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I am so sorry that this took so long. More about that below. 
> 
> This was originally meant to be one long chapter, but then I realised that it would work better as multiple shorter chapters, especially when I realised that more set up was required than I had originally intended.
> 
> As always, constructive criticism is always welcome. Enjoy!

By the time of Queen Daenerys Targaryen’s arrival in Westeros, the War of the Five Kings (298 – 302 AC) had burnt itself out, but new conflicts soon emerged from its ashes. The survivors of the conflicts both past and recent sought vengeance for their dead, and the tenuous peace (if it can even be called that) of 303 AC withered away.

The majority of the events that took place following Queen Daenerys’ return to Westeros, including her campaign for the Iron Throne and the renowned War for the Dawn, have been extensively documented and analysed by scholars both past and present. By far the most exhaustive (and well-known) of these chronicles is The Song of Ice and Fire, a gargantuan compendium of the histories surrounding the War of the Five Kings and the subsequent War for the Dawn. The flowery, almost lyrical name of this great work is a grotesque romanticisation of one of the darkest periods in Westerosi history. The authenticity of many of its accounts remain questionable, with sources contradicting one another and themselves, yet it is the most comprehensive and detailed of the accounts that exist of that time. This chronicle took decades to compile, written in the hands of multiple scribes and maesters, from thousands of first- and second-hand accounts, as well as royal proclamations, court documents (and gossip), and the letters and personal papers of significant individuals involved. 

As such a collection exists, we shall not recount the intricacies of Queen Daenerys’ war against the Iron Throne, at least not in the detail provided within The Song of Ice and Fire. For our purposes, we shall focus our attention on the accounts set down by Archmaester Marwyn, and Tyrion Lannister, the Dwarf of Casterly Rock, and it is the foundation of this volume as well.

Marwyn, known as “Marwyn the Mage” by his colleagues, possessed the ring, rod and mask of Valyrian steel, signifying his devotion to the study of the higher mysteries. His choice of discipline earned him only ridicule and scorn at the Citadel, and upon hearing the rumours of dragons, he set out from Oldtown with as many books on dragons and magic as he could carry. Having joined her campaign in her final days in Meereen, his inexhaustible knowledge of the arcane arts rendered him invaluable to Queen Daenerys, and he would eventually rise to the position of Grand Maester.

Conversely, Lord Tyrion stumbled upon Her Grace in Meereen as a recently-captured slave. According to Lord Tyrion’s personal papers—discovered some years after his death—it was his hatred of his family (particularly his sister, Queen Cersei) that drew Queen Daenerys’ attention, and she sought to use that animosity to her advantage. Marwyn, on the other hand, insists that the dwarf’s vitriol towards his sister unsettled the queen, and it was only at the insistence of Ser Jorah Mormont that she took him on as a political advisor. Despite these inauspicious beginnings, we are told that, in time, the queen and the dwarf developed a friendship, and eventually became one of her most trusted confidants.

And so, on the twelfth day of the second moon of 304 AC, nearly two months after the arrival of Queen Daenerys and her army, ravens flew from the towers of Dragonstone. Their message, carried to all of the Seven Kingdoms, was a brief one: Queen Daenerys Targaryen had returned to claim her father’s throne with her three dragons, and she summoned all of the leal lords and ladies of the Seven Kingdoms to Dragonstone to pledge their fealty to her. Rumours of Queen Daenerys’ return to Westeros had already spread beyond the shores of Dragonstone, despite the efforts (or perhaps because) of the queen’s spy master, Lord Varys, the very same man who served her father, as well as the usurper Robert Baratheon and his putative son. The arrival of the ravens bearing the queen’s proclamation merely confirmed them, and even before the birds flew, men were travelling to Dragonstone to witness her in person. Those noble houses that resided in the Crownlands were amongst the first to do so. During the War of the Five kings, the lords of the narrow sea had largely supported Stannis Baratheon, whilst the mainland lords had supported Joffrey Baratheon. After the defeat of Lord Stannis on the Blackwater, many of his Crownland supporters bent the knee to his nephew in exchange for pardons, and the remainder went north to fight (and die) with their defeated ‘king’. The reappearance of a Targaryen queen invigorated them, Marwyn tells us, for they had been neglected and scorned during the Baratheon rule. Lord Tyrion agrees, but adds that the presence of dragons “helped matters somewhat”.

It was not long until the first of the Crownlands’ forces arrived on Dragonstone. The houses of Crackclaw Point, renowned for their loyalty to House Targaryen, arrived in force, bringing with them the one-legged castellan of the Dun Fort, Ser Rufus Leek. The elderly knight had been left to guard the town of Duskendale whilst his liege lord, Renfred Rykker, was away in the Riverlands. The houses of Crackclaw Point, led by the Brunes of Dyre Den, had captured the town bloodlessly, and offered it as a token of fealty to Queen Daenerys. 

Less than a moonturn after the surrender of Duskendale, a small fleet of dromonds were seen docking at one of the ports of Dragonstone. One of the ships flew the seahorse of house Valaryon, as well as its inverted counterpart, and was captained by Aurane Waters, the Bastard of Driftmark. He had been appointed as King Tommen’s “grand admiral” by Queen Cersei (the Lannister queen changed the titles of the positions in 302 AC, some say because she wanted no ‘masters’ overruling her). When the queen was arrested by the Faith, ‘Lord’ Waters took the newly-constructed fleet of warships and fled Kings Landing, perhaps intending to turn to piracy. Whatever his intentions, upon hearing of the Targaryen queen’s return to Westeros, the Bastard of Driftmark turned for home to collect his young nephew, the six-year-old Lord Monterys. He presented the war galleys as a gift to Queen Daenerys, along with his nephew’s and his own oath of allegiance. Of the event, both Lord Tyrion and Maester Marwyn tell us that the queen gave the Bastard of Driftmark a shrewd smile and accepted his fealty, but had a watch placed on him all the same, lest Aurane Waters decided to purloin his purloined ships.

All the houses of the Crowlands could not hope to hold out against the Lannisters, however. To the great relief of Queen Daenerys and her advisors, ravens from Highgarden and Sunspear soon came; the Martells and Tyrells wanted vengeance against the Lannisters for wounds both old and new, and desired to treat with the Dragon Queen.

Both parties landed on Dragonstone the same day, and the queen received them both in her solar. The new lord of Highgarden, Willas Tyrell, had remained behind in the Reach to call his banners, along with his brother, Ser Garlan Tyrell, who had been made Lord of Brightwater Keep in place of the Florents. Their paternal grandmother, the implacable and sharp-tongued Olenna Redwyne, spoke in their stead. Her son and two youngest grandchildren had been amongst the hundreds that died in the implosion of the Great Sept of Baelor, and she, more than anyone, wanted to see Cersei Lannister dead. Lord Tyrion writes that the Queen of Thorns vowed to give the strength of Highgarden to Queen Daenerys if the queen would only give her “that lion bitch’s head” in return. According to the dwarf, Queen Daenerys smiled at the old woman, and pledged to do just that.

In the Martells, Queen Daenerys found shrewder bargainers. It should be noted that this was not the first time that Dorne had attempted to forge an alliance with the Targaryens. It is now known that a marriage pact was drawn up in secret whilst the Targaryen princelings were sheltering in Braavos. This pact supposedly stated that Prince Viserys would marry the Prince of Dorne’s eldest daughter and heir, the princess Arianne. Both Targaryens were uninformed of this at the time (calling into question its legitimacy), and Prince Viserys went to his grave unaware of his potential allies. Its existence only came to light when Prince Doran sent his second-born child, Prince Quentyn, to Meereen, where the queen was maintaining a tenuous hold over the former slave city. With Prince Viserys dead, Prince Doran intended to have his son wed the Dragon Queen, and would provide her the spears of Dorne in return. Prince Quentyn however, was considered wholly unsuitable for the task at hand (namely by his elder sister). The journey to Meereen was fraught with peril and disaster. Three of his companions (including the lord of Yronwood’s firstborn son) were slain by corsairs before they even reached Volantis. When they arrived in Meereen, Queen Daenerys was already betrothed to a nobleman in the city in order to keep the peace, and rejected the prince’s proposal. What occurred next has been widely referred to as ‘Prince Quentyn’s Folly’, and a folly it was. Dragons were essential to Prince Doran’s plot to exact vengeance on his enemies, so after Daenerys’ flight from the city, Prince Quentyn and his remaining companions crept into the dragon’s lair and attempted to steal one. This madness ended as only could be expected; Prince Quentyn was burned alive by one of the queen’s dragons, dying three days later in mortal agony. As for his remaining companions (one of whom was the Lord of Yronwood’s nephew), it is known that they survived their prince’s foolishness, but their ultimate fate remains elusive. Some believe that they endeavoured to return to Westeros, but perished along the way. Most assert that they remained in Meereen for questioning, then travelled with Queen Daenerys when she went to conquer the Seven Kingdoms, and died during the War for the Dawn.

Prince Doran passed in his sleep shortly after the news of his son’s fate reached him, leaving his daughter as ruler of Dorne, and Princess Arianne was determined to take action for House Martell. Prince Doran’s neutrality in the War of the Five Kings earned him no enemies, but no friends either. While his brother, Prince Oberyn, made his desire for vengeance against the Lannisters well-known, Prince Doran was of a far more subtle (and patient) disposition, which many sadly mistook for cowardice. On Princess Arianne’s ascension, a great cry for retribution rose up from the smallfolk, who had loved Prince Oberyn well, and the new Princess of Dorne heeded this cry. She announced her intention to treat with the dragon queen, and more than half of the Dornish lords pledged to follow her (the other half were somewhat more reluctant).  
Upon meeting the Princess of Dorne, Queen Daenerys was cautious, for she had not forgotten Prince Quentyn’s mad insult in Meereen. Princess Arianne assuaged the queen’s concerns, dismissing her younger brother as a “desperate fool”.

Queen Daenerys knew of the Martells’ desire to avenge their fallen loved ones, and asked if the princess had come to pledge her support. Princess Arianne nodded, and said that “all the spears of Dorne are with Your Grace. You shall have no fiercer or more loyal allies…but there are certain specifics that must be agreed upon first.” 

The foremost of these specifics was perhaps the most obvious: the princess desired her own blood to sit the Iron Throne. The union of Prince Rhaegar and Princess Elia was the first marriage between a Targaryen and a Martell since Daeron II Targaryen and Myriah Martell, more than one hundred years prior. Since there was no male Martell still living, Princess Arianne proposed a marriage pact between their future children; the consort of Queen Daenerys’ heir would be a Martell, and the succeeding ruler would be of Martell blood. The queen reluctantly agreed – she still considered herself barren, and would determine the succession after she had won her throne.

Princess Arianne also requested other boons of her Grace; a Dornishman (or woman, as it would turn out to be) was to sit on the Small Council for the entirety of Queen Daenerys’ reign, to act as an advisor in matters of the realm. The taxation policies of Daeron II were reaffixed, ensuring that the Dornish would be lightly taxed at best by the crown. Any prisoners of Dornish birth were to be repatriated back to Dorne to face trial. A least one member of the Queensgaurd was to be Dornish (to Ser Barristan’s dismay), and Princess Arianne had bought with her the first contender. Ser Daemon Sand, the Bastard of Godsgrace, was once Prince Oberyn’s squire and had been knighted by the Red Viper himself. (He was also reputed to have once been Princess Arianne’s paramour, having once even presumed to ask for her hand.) Ser Daemon knelt before Queen Daenerys and begged the honour of serving on her Queensgaurd. Despite Ser Barristan Selmy’s misgivings, the queen agreed, and a white cloak was bestowed upon the Bastard of Godsgrace.

The first test of Ser Daemon’s loyalty was soon in coming. Two nights after his admittance to the Queensgaurd, Queen Daenerys held one of her many courts, allowing her people to come and confide in her their hopes and grievances. The would-be assassin’s name is lost to history, as well as his benefactor, but it is known when the queen called him forward, he made to lunge at her with a hidden dagger. It was Ser Daemon who moved to defend the queen first, having been younger and swifter than his two Sworn Brothers. The catspaw was swiftly disarmed and confined to the dungeons, but was found dead in his cell before he could be questioned. Upon examination, Archmaester Marwyn declared that he had ingested a vial of poison, found hidden on his person. 

It need not be said that many found this incident to be highly suspicious. While some at the time suspected Cersei Lannister to have sent the assassin, most were sceptical. The attack was haphazard and ill-planned, perhaps indicating that the catspaw acted of his own volition, though the vial of poison concealed in his clothing speaks against this. There was, however, another theory on the minds of many at her Grace’s court: that the assassin was sent by Princess Arianne Martell, not to kill the queen, but to provide the opportunity for Ser Daemon Sand to prove his loyalty. Regardless of the validity of this claim, and wary of losing Dornish support, Queen Daenerys thanked Ser Daemon and kept him on her Queensgaurd, a decision that would prove fruitful in the wars to come.

Now with sufficient Westerosi allies, the Queen intended to use them against her enemies. Whilst attacking the capital with her dragons would have been the swiftest course of action, it was also the one with the most unpredictable outcome. The queen could have easily rained fire and blood down upon the Red Keep and taken her ancestral seat within a day, but there was no telling how many innocents would be slain in the firestorm. In addition, the queen’s control over her two riderless dragons was much more tenuous than over her own mount, and she feared that Rhaegal and Viserion would turn to needless slaughter if allowed into battle

“I am not here to be queen of the ashes,” her Grace declared. “The Usurper’s wife must be made to pay for her crimes, yes, but I will not risk the lives of my people without due cause. They have suffered enough.”

When news reached her that a force loyal to the Lannisters was marching through the Crowlands towards Duskendale to retake the town and capture her allies, Queen Daenerys not only sent her own forces to defend it, but flew Drogon into battle herself. What followed, however, was no true battle. The Dragon Queen's forces outnumbered the Lannisters' almost three to one, and nearly a third of the Lannister army was made up of half-starved peasants wielding spiked wooden clubs. The experienced soldiers in the army were half-starved themselves, and exhausted from previous battles and travelling besides. The queen's 8000 Unsullied was bolstered by a smaller portion of her Dothraki and the armies of the Crowlands. The Lannister forces were cut to ribbons within an hour, many throwing down their weapons and fleeing at the sight of the queen upon her dragon. Queen Daenerys had Drogon breath a great wall of fire to block the way back to the capital and into the Riverlands, forcing the fleeing men into the forests of Crackclaw point, though was careful not to aim her dragon's fires at the battle itself. Once the Lannisters broke, the Queen sent half of her Unsullied and Crownland forces to capture any enemy soldiers but instructed her men to treat them fairly.

Upon her return to Dragonstone, the queen received reports from her informal spymaster, Lord Varys. They revealed that her rival on the Iron Throne was rapidly losing support even before the battle of Duskendale. It was the intention of the Targaryen council to weaken their loyalties further, to prove to the lords and smallfolk alike that their true queen had returned to bring justice to those who had wronged them. Cersei Lannister’s forces were both scattered and exhausted, weary of war and fearful of the coming winter. Lord Tyrion reasoned it would not take much to dismantle his sister’s power base. Once the Lannister queen’s allies were removed, the Dragon Queen would be free to take the capital, and from there, deal with the rising threat of Euron Greyjoy, who had taken to prowling up and down the Sunset Sea.

Ser Barristan would lead the Dornish forces into the now-leaderless Stormlands and attempt to bring about some form of stability there before convincing those who remained to join her Grace. Lord Tyrion would travel with the Reachmen to march into the Westerlands to further weaken the Lannisters’ strength. Lord Paxter Redwyne would assemble his considerable fleet to in preparation to protect the Reach and the Westerlands from the increasingly violent Ironborn attacks. The Dothraki and Unsullied would be used to defend Dragonstone and the Crownlands, and to isolate King’s Landing from any potential reinforcements.

It was as Ser Barristan and Lord Tyrion were departing Dragonstone that a raven from the North arrived. Addressed to Queen Daenerys from the King of the North and the Vale, it was short, simple and foreboding, and would forever change the face of Westeros. “The war for the Iron Throne means nothing,” it said. “I will bring her Grace Queen Daenerys of House Targaryen proof of this when I arrive to discuss an alliance.”

When Jon Snow, the King of the North and the Vale, landed on Dragonstone on the fifteen day of the seventh moon of 304 AC, he would bring with him his Hand, Ser Davos Seaworth, Lord Howland Reed of Greywater Watch, his white, silent direwolf…and winter itself, for snow had begun to fall upon the south.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again! I hope that wasn't so terrible!
> 
> I wanted to depict Dany working with her allies to develop a game plan for her taking of Westeros. I wanted to see her interacting with her allies and her people as there was not nearly enough of that in the show!
> 
> Again, I apologise for the ridiculously long wait. Real-life really knocked me for six these last five months. In March, our dog was diagnosed with lymphoma and we had to put her to sleep about a week afterwards, which pretty much destroyed my desire to write for a while. Then COVID-19 worsened, and all my classes were moved to online learning. While I was very fortunate I that regards as I was able to stay home, I also had a ton of essays to write, and after a day of writing for university, the last thing I felt like doing was sitting at my laptop and writing some more!
> 
> Now my winter break has started, so I have a lot more free time and I expect to get the next chapter up by the beginning of August (here's hoping!) Please let me know what you think!

**Author's Note:**

> Well, there it is! My first chapter completed! I'm not entirely happy with it, but then again, I probably would never have been happy with it, regardless of how it came out. I apologise if the structure is a bit all over the place. I first meant it as an introduction, but then I realised that I had to set up any changes to canon that would impact that story moving forward.
> 
> The next chapter will depict (roughly) the War for the Dawn and the taking of Kings Landing but will be more like an overview of events, as I more want to focus on the aftermath of all the battles and scheming, as well as how Jon and Dany handle of it (together).
> 
> I'm not sure when my next update will be. I'm heading back to university in a month's time, so hopefully, it will be before then, but updates will probably be somewhat sporadic after that. Finger's crossed that all keeps going well. 
> 
> Thanks so much!


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